This is a story of prison, crime, and guilt. It is a story of the
prison's built for us with real walls that we find ourselves in and the
prison's we build for ourselves in our own minds. It is a story of crimes of passion and desire, which we cannot explain away
with ration or reason, and the crimes we commit to survive in a
"decadent world that curses us with its morality." It is the story of
the guilt that is built into us and the guilt we cultivate like a prison
around our hearts.
Delany explores the depths of a
futuristic prison unimaginably deep underground, where prisoners are
kept in glycerine coffins of which the only two notable characteristics are darkness and silence.
Venture into the minds of three different types of criminals as they
decide if they deserve to escape, as they talk of their crimes, their guilt, their
passions, and their imprisonment. Contemplate utter silence, unimaginable darkness, and
nothing.